No real problem with messy clean up with mine. Bigger two Kings are on beech chips and the little nipper is on aspen. I only have to scoop up about a handful or two of chips with each spot clean. No particular favourite spot either.

I like to use kitchen roll so its easy to spot and cheap to replace but my little tinker favours doing his business when being handled!!!! So much that i can now predict when he is about to do it and place some under his but so i no longer get covered in it.... the bigger his dinners get, the far more mess he is making! not nice! lol x

i have both my snake (goins and corn)on cage carpet its great when its dirty just disinfected and put in the washing machine (no washing powder) for 15 mins and then place back in viv slightly dam and they love it heatmat and or lamp will dry it in about 30 mins

I use newspaper for all my snakes, especially since all my adult kings and corn are really messy. If they make a mess I fully clean them out, clean with some F10 and replace the paper. I also find the snakes seem to prefer hiding under the paper.

paper? interesting- ive got some on chips and some on aspen, i like the chips better visually but they really dont absorb wetness well at all- i find damp patches on the wood, like the OP. aspen is nicer for the snakeys, they like to burrow in it and then pop! their little head appears... spot is the funniest, she seems to think that if her neck is covered, she's invisible... even though there's still a good three foot of distinct black and white banded waggliness waving about above the bedding behind her- kings, bless em, theyre just so fik...my problem with aspen and chips is cos lots of my vivs are coverted glass-front cupboards, there's no 'threshold' at the bottom, so the bedding gets caught in the glass door runners. drives me potty. paper might solve that, i spose..... i guess for them to burrow, you put in lots of layers, then DMF?